Teaching psychology to computing students

The aim of this paper is twofold. The first aim is to discuss some observations gained from teaching Psychology to Computing students, highlighting both the wide range of areas where Psychology is relevant to Computing education and the topics that are relevant at different stages of students’ education. The second aim is to consider findings from research investigating the characteristics of Computing and Psychology students. It is proposed that this information could be considered in the design and use of Psychology materials for Computing students. The format for the paper is as follows. Section one will illustrate the many links between the disciplines of Psychology & Computing; highlighting these links helps to answer the question that many Computing students ask, what can Psychology offer to Computing? Section two will then review some of the ways that I have been involved in teaching Psychology to Computing students, from A/AS level to undergraduate and postgraduate level. Section three will compare the profiles of Computing and Psychology students (e.g. on age, gender and motivation to study), to highlight how an understanding of these factors can be used to adapt Psychology teaching materials for Computing students. The conclusions which cover some practical suggestions are presented in section four

Exploring Cultural Differences in HCI Education

The discipline of human-computer interaction has become a subject taught across universities around the world, outside of the cultures where it originated. However, the intercultural implication of its assimilation into the\ud syllabus of courses offered by universities around the world remains underresearched. The purpose of this ongoing research project is to provide insights for these implications in terms of the student and teacher experience of HCI. How this subject is socially represented across the different universities studied is a key question. In order to develop intercultural awareness of these questions\ud universities from UK, Namibia, Mexico and China are collaborating in a multiple case study involving students and lecturers engaged in evaluation and design tasks. Findings will then be used to propose an international HCI curriculum more supportive of local perspectives. This paper describes the initial steps of this study and some preliminary findings from Namibia, India and Mexico about cognitive styles and cultural attitudes

Initial Evaluation of Accessibility and Design Awareness with 3-D Immersive Environments

This paper describes an effort to build and evaluate the effectiveness of an immersive 3-D visualization system to help increase the awareness that students have when designing software that has a high level of accessibility for the differently abled. The demonstration utilizes an immersive virtual reality (VR) environment in which we simulated two types of colorblindness in a generally familiar environment. We report on the initial trial of this tool and the results of student surveys designed to assess impact on student perception and understanding and demonstrate that the use of virtual environments can give students greater empathy for individuals with visual impairments

Learning HCI Across Institutions, Disciplines and Countries: A Field Study of Cognitive Styles in Analytical and Creative Tasks

Human-computer interaction (HCI) is increasingly becoming a subject taught in universities around the world. However, little is known of the interactions of the HCI curriculum with students in different types of institutions and disciplines internationally. In order to explore these interactions, we studied the performance of HCI students in design, technology and business faculties in universities in UK, India, Namibia, Mexico and China who participated in a common set of design and evaluation tasks. We obtained participants’ cognitive style profiles based on Allinson and Hayes scale in order to gain further insights into their learning styles and explore any relation between these and performance. We found participants’ cognitive style preferences to be predominantly in the adaptive range, i.e. with combined analytical and intuitive traits, compared to normative data for software engineering, psychology and design professionals. We further identified significant relations between students’ cognitive styles and performance in analytical and creative tasks of a HCI professional individual. We discuss the findings in the context of the distinct backgrounds of the students and universities that participated in this study and the value of research that explores and promotes diversity in HCI education